Just went to Coobah (Southport and Newport) for dinner. Had only been there for brunch before. Def my new favorite restaurant in the Southport area. Better imo than Crosby's, fairly limited menu but everything they have seems interesting, and have been there 3 times with nothing but above average meals for under $40.

What's wrong with Lettuce Entertain You? It's like rakeback for eating at some decent restaurants.

LEYE has some family oriented/chain-y feeling places (by design I'm sure) but they also have some highly reputable establishments that many people probably would not guess are LEYE places.

LEYE restaurants I've enjoyed: HUB 51, Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, M Burger, RPM Italian, Scoozi

LEYE restaurants I want to try: Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, Paris Club, L20, Shaw's Crab House, Tru

Everest is also LEYE and is a Michelin star rated restaurant, definitely fine dining. My buddy works in the kitchen. Been once so far and it was amazing. Going again this weekend, really looking forward to it.

Big Bowl is pretty decent too.

Cafe Ba-ba-Reeba is awesome.

Nice to have some pleasant temperatures for Taste this year.

Flying in tomorrow morning. Planned the trip without/prior to realizing it was the Taste. Any recommendations on the line up there?

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en..._chicago7.html

Already a solid line up of food and bars planned from experience and this thread, so just looking for standouts from there as well.

my advice when going to the taste is go to all of the south side places (any place that has an S as the starting letter in the address, any numbered street, any place that is listed on archer, or any place that is listed as being on stoney island). It's unlikely that you'll ever visit them on a normal trip to chicago, so it gives a nice taste (no pun intended) of what they have.

Edit: don't bother with Connie's. Since you've followed this thread, you'll be familiar with much better pizza places.

A lot of people hate on the taste, but it is what it is. The weather is a ton better this year than it has been in the past and the crowds have been less the past couple of years from what I noticed.

That said, you'll only want to be there for about an hour and then be on your way. The tickets are expensive and you can have a lot more fun in Chicago than spending 3+ hrs at the taste.

Yea figured it was an unexpected bonus, and wanted to check it out tomorrow hoping for less crowds than the weekend.

More excited to return to a few previous spots and try some new ones.

Taste is meh.

If you go to the taste don't waste tickets on common bull**** like corn on the cob or watermelon slices. Try some Harolds fried chicken, it will be the safest way for an out of towner to experience Chicagos.best fried chicken

It's worth stopping in. Relatively inexpensive, quick, easy and pretty tasty. It's definitely a no frills joint.

I'm gonna make a bold guess and say it was me you spotted

Our work group has been trying to find a consistent trivia spot. We enjoyed the Diag but they closed down their "Geeks who Drink" venue.

If any of you guys do trivia then holler in this thread, could build a team. The only trivia grinders from my new work/2p2 group are myself and prittay good.

Also if comic books is a staple of 1 round of "geeks who drink" every week then we may need a comic book ringer. We lost way too much ground in that category.

clayton, shoot me a PM. I can set something up in august depending on the day of the week

Any opinions ITT of best beer bars in Wrigleyville for Sunday night baseball pregame?

The CR/DD office has done trivia a few times at one of the bars in Gold Coast

Nevermind, searched thread on full site and starting at Sheffields then working way up. Keep looking for Zombie Dust and striking out everywhere.

Had some at Hopleaf two-ish weeks ago.

I tried going there a few weeks ago on a Friday night

For trivia, I find Whatdayaknow to be pretty solid. Been to the one at Crossroads on Wednesday night and Mickeys on Thursday night. Usually decent competition.

Wildfire and RJ Grunts my two favorite LEYE restaurants.

Anybody going to Gold Cup Final? Can't decide if i should get tickets now or just get it the day of.

Anyone have any cool workout ideas/options in the city I could explore? I cancelled my monthly membership at XSport since it's nice out and I had a hard time dealing with the madhouse at Logan Square. Lately, I've been running up and down Lakeshore and throwing the medicine ball around with my wife (I'm 26 and she's 24) but looking for one-off ideas that would motivate me to want to workout after work each day.

I work at (therefore am always scouring) Groupon for CrossFit or MMA-type things but rather than buy 10-packs or 1 month unlimited would prefer to try a few things once before committing to going for a period of time.

I've looked into sports leagues but don't have enough commitment from others to build a team.

If anyone has a good running spot, or workout group or a gym that has cheap drop-ins and is not a zoo after work I'd really appreciate it.

FWIW I live at Grace and Southport

Jamie,
You live within walking distance to Windy City Crossfit (on Ravenswood just N of Irving, in the old Threadless space). I would recommend checking it out. I am a H&F (here at 2p2) nerd, and I think they have good programming and coaches (for Crossfit).

Caveats:
-it's very expensive. I am not sure how much.
-I moved away from that gym a few years ago (and just lift at home), though I can vouch for the owner as well as at least a few of the coaches who are still there
-I think it's really popular, not sure how that affects the coaching.
-Crossfit is not for everyone (I ended up preferring non-Crossfit activities, but even so, that gym has a great atmosphere and is worth checking out.)

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to PM. Good luck.

My buddy lives at Magnolia/Addison and is a part of a big Crossfit group -- so there is definitely plenty of interest near you.

Anyone good at tennis want to make up a doubles tomorrow with 1 other good (D1) player and two intermediates?

Try Hopleaf. I took a draught beer class in Colorado with their beverage director and he said they were the only bar in Chicago with a dedicated ZD line.

Man went to DryHop and was thoroughly unimpressed. Atmosphere, food, etc

I went a bunch when they first opened (and really liked it obv) but find myself going back less and less, even though its less than a 5 minute walk for me. No TVs, limited menu, subpar service (granted they are still new but it's real bad at times), etc. I thought the crowds would die down a bit but the bar layout sucks when it's busy, and it's impossible to get a seat during any busy hours. No reservations either.

I've still only had the burger/fries there which are really good IMO, but the different beers they keep rotating in and out are the only real reason to keep coming back.

It does make me think of how spoiled I have it living here. If a place like this opened when I was in college or in my hometown, it would be a huge deal. Now it's just another spot out of 10,000, and now that the novelty has sort of worn off, it's just a place for a quick beer or 2 since its close to home.